


To Stick Together With You

by caramel_ICE_cream (cheriemelody)



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Multi, set a few months after canon, so multiple ship tags for yugo, yugo is polyamorous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2018-12-06 14:09:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11602239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheriemelody/pseuds/caramel_ICE_cream
Summary: The 8 dimensional girls and boys have finally separated. Except for Yugo and Yuri. And they don't know why. As Yugo is looking forward to finally spending time with Rin alone, Yuri starts to figure out the reason. . .





	1. Chapter 1

_ Wind was blowing around her. The color of the wind was green. Green was a nice color. The color changed to blue. A light blue. Also a nice color. A sweet bell chimed in the distance. When it reached her, it started to sound like a different kind of bell. A school bell? _

Rin opened her eyes.  _ Oh, I fell asleep.  _ She looked around her, and her classmates were leaving the classroom. She rubbed her eyes and then looked at the clock.  _ Looks like school ended.  _ To think at one point that she had been so excited to go to an actual school instead of studying from textbooks from the City library. While it was easier for her to have the material taught to her instead of learning it from a book on her own, she still wasn’t used to studying at a set pace.

She glanced at the whiteboard and sighed. She would have to ask one of her classmates for their notes. Despite the fact that she never had a formal education in the City, the teachers  were very surprised to see how far she was in science. Building a D-Wheel with Yugo certainly helped that. Because of that, they had advised her to take the Maiami High School entrance exam. And she had passed.  _ If only Yugo paid more attention to the theory behind it, then we might have been classmates,  _ Rin mused. All of her newfound friends were still in junior high, and she still had to get used to having classmates several years older than her. 

She put her notebook into her bag and headed out of school. Normally, if her club didn’t meet that day, she would head home (the Hiiragi household). However, Yugo had asked to meet with her near the city fountain that day. Rin smiled. She wished that she could meet with Yugo more often, but her studies didn’t help to give her time. Also, while she was finally free from everything, Yugo wasn’t. . . She shook her head to bring herself out of her thoughts. It had to get resolved for Yugo. And it would. 

She eventually saw the fountain from a distance. And groaned.  _ Yugo, why?  _ Yugo was standing near the fountain and was yelling seemingly with nobody. If Rin didn’t know any better, she would have been convinced that Yugo was out of his mind. That was why she was concerned that he was attracting onlookers. Rin started to panic as one of the onlookers started to bring out his phone, so she ran to the fountain and called out to Yugo. Thankfully, that stopped his outburst. However, as her worry disappeared, it was replaced by exasperation. 

_ Yugo, you are in so much trouble right now. _

* * *

“Oi! Don’t you see how stupid it is?!” Yugo yelled at Yuri. “Why are  _ we _ the only ones to not get separated yet?!”

Yuri simply rolled his eyes.  _ Do you realize how you look right now? I’m surprised no one called the cops on you yet. _

Yugo did look crazy by standing near the fountain and yelling to himself. He couldn’t bring himself to care. “No, seriously. Why us? Once the En cards worked, the girls separated, no problem. Even Yuya and Yuto managed to separate eventually. So  _ why? _ ”

“Yugo!”

_ Oh, look who’s here. _

Yugo stopped his rant and turned around. “Rin?”

Rin was breathing quickly, so she must have ran. Despite that, she managed to glare at Yugo quite effectively. Yugo stiffened.  _ Heh, look who’s in trouble. _

“Shut up,” Yugo muttered.

Unfortunately, that only seemed to make Rin even more pissed off. Yugo quickly apologized, “No, I didn’t mean you, Rin.”

Rin closed her eyes, breathed in deeply, and then exhaled. “I already knew that. Don’t you see that’s why I’m mad?”

“Huh?” Yugo was still confused.

“Yugo, you look like you’re crazy when you talk to Yuri like that. Especially when you’re mad at him.”

_ I told you so. _

Yugo grimaced. Somehow, for some reason, he didn’t have this problem when it had been the four of them (Yuya, Yuto, Yugo, and Yuri) in the same body. Maybe back then, they all had been considered more as a single entity, so they almost never fought. But now, after he was stuck with Yuri and only Yuri, things had changed. Their personalities clashed constantly. 

“Yugo, please. At least try,” Rin pleaded.

“I’ll  _ try _ , but-”

“Chances are, I won’t be there to stop you from getting sent to the hospital or whatnot. So do your best.”

Yugo sighed, “Yes, mom.”

_ (Giggling.) _

Rin still seemed annoyed, but she let go of the subject. “Anyways, we might as well go shopping for snacks now.”

Yugo brightened up. That was the whole point of them meeting up! “Sure, let’s go now!”

Rin finally smiled at Yugo that day. “Well, let’s go now.”

* * *

_ I can’t believe you two. _

“Synchro Summon! Come forth, Windwitch - Winter Bell!”

_ I can’t believe you’re fighting over this. _

“Rin, even if you bring out Silver Bell, that won’t be enough to defeat Crystal Wing. This duel is mine!”

_ By the way, my bets are still placed on Rin.  _

“I wonder about that,” Rin smirked. 

_ Yup, I knew it. _

Yugo flinched. That didn’t sound good for him. Rin then revealed a card in her hand. “I activate Ultra Polymerization!”

_ What? _

“Huh?”

“With “Windwitch - Winter Bell” and “Windwitch - Snow Bell” on my field, I Fusion Summon “Windwitch - Crystal Bell!”

_ Interesting. I never would have expected that. _

Yugo stepped backwards. This didn’t sound good.

“Using Ultra Polymerization’s effect, I banish it from the graveyard to revive Winter Bell and Snow Bell from the graveyard. However, their effects are negated, and their attack and defense are reduced to 0. Then using those two, I will Synchro Summon Windwitch - Silver Bell!”

_ This match is hers. _

“Is there anything I can do to survive this turn?” Yugo whispered to himself.

“I activate Silver Bell’s effect. It can destroy one of your monsters and deal damage equal to its level times 200. I will destroy Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon!”

“I won’t let you!” Yugo yelled. “Crystal Wing will negate Silver Bell’s effect, destroy it, and then gain attack points equal to its attack.”

_ Crystal Wing gained 2800 ATK, so now it has 5800 ATK. But now you can’t use its negation effect until next turn. _

“Time for me to activate Crystal Bell’s effect! It will copy Silver Bell’s effect in the graveyard. I will destroy Crystal Wing, and then you’ll take 1600 damage!”

“Urgh!” Crystal Wing was destroyed, and Yugo flew backwards from the damage taken. Then he quickly got up. 

“This is my win!” Rin grinned. “Crystal Bell, attack directly!”

Yugo screamed as he flew backwards yet again as his life points reached 0. 

As he was recovering he heard an applause. Confused, he looked at the audience that he and Rin gained. He then turned towards Rin. She was smiling bashfully at her audience. 

_ They must have come from the store, wondering what the ruckus was about. _

He stood up and followed her when she headed towards the store. There, she thanked the staff for keeping the shopping cart for her while she dueled. Since she won the duel, she returned a couple of bags of chips that Yugo had wanted.

_ I still can’t believe that you two dueled over snacks. _

Shuzo had given Rin an allowance to buy snacks, but there wasn’t enough for both of them to get all the snacks they wanted. Since Yugo lost the duel, he had to sacrifice a couple of snacks. 

Yugo grumbled as he and Rin finally bought their snacks for today’s movie night. “It adds up, you know,” Yugo mumbled. “I mean, we always dueled whenever we got into an argument.”

_ I suppose that’s one way to settle small arguments like these. _

As they carried their snacks to the Hiiragi residence, Yugo remembered something that bothered him. “Rin,” Yugo wondered, “why would you use that monster? Fusion Summoning doesn’t really suit you.”

Rin smiled wistfully. “I don’t want to run away from what has happened to me. Even if it’s sad. But it’s still a part of who I am.”

_ Well, now you’ve made it awkward. _

“Rin,” Yugo said softly. Rin had been through so much. Yugo still wished that he could have saved her back then.

Thankfully, the awkward situation didn’t last long. “You know,” Rin said with a smirk, “I actually don’t mind now, though. It was probably worth it since it let me beat you again.”

Yugo laughed shyly. It was nice though, Yugo thought, that he had dueled Rin again. It had been a long while since he had last dueled her for fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Btw, Windwitch - Silver Bell is a name and monster I made up. It's a level 8 Synchro monster.


	2. Chapter 2

Rin looked down at her desk and sighed. She didn’t know how she was going to finish studying for her tests in time. Feeling defeated, she laid her head on top of her open textbook. She wanted to sleep then and there. As she was dozing off, she was too tired to even notice that she pushed her textbook out of the way to make room. 

But just when she was starting to fall asleep, her duel disk rang. Rin grumbled while she picked it up and looked at it. Staring back at her was a picture of Yugo with a dorky smile plastered on his face. She sighed and answered it.

“Riiiiin!”

Rin perked up. Yugo seemed even more excited than usual. “Yugo? Did something happen?”

“Yeah! Can I visit your place?”

“Sure, but what happened?” 

“I’ll tell you all about it later! See ya!”

“Yugo-”

Before Rin could continue, Yugo quickly hung up. She groaned and dropped her head on the desk again. Yugo was being stupid as usual. Once Yugo was this excited, it was almost impossible to calm him down and make him  _ slow down _ . 

Rin closed her eyes. She was still mostly alert from the call, so she didn’t think that she could fall back asleep and nap until Yugo arrived. Perhaps she could study? She looked at the textbook she had pushed away from her. She mentally shook her head. She was too preoccupied with what Yugo might tell her later.

As she pondered on what could have possibly made Yugo this excited, she wondered about the last time she had felt that kind of excitement.  _ When we were told that we could finally be separated. _

_ Wait. _

It was probably, no, more than likely that that was what Yugo wanted to share with her. That Yugo and Yuri could finally be separated.

As always, she wondered why they hadn’t separated yet.

Someone knocked on her door. Rin’s heart skipped a beat. “Rin, can I come in?”

Rin wanted to scream at him. She managed to opt for a groan instead. “You can.”

It was a rather loud groan, so Yugo slowly opened the door and shyly peeked his head into the room. “Rin, you okay?”

Rin placed her hand over her chest. “You gave me a scare there. That was a lot earlier than I expected. How did you even get in? Actually,” Rin changed her mind, “never mind. Doesn’t really matter.”

“Okay,” Yugo said in a small voice.

As he walked into the room, Rin realized that even after a few months, she was still skittish. “Yugo, sorry about that,” Rin apologized.

“Huh?” Yugo was confused, “Why are you sorry? I should be the one apologizing.”

Rin shook her head. “No, it’s not your fault. I guess it’s not really my fault either. But things take me by surprise a lot more than they used to.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Things like door knocks never scared Rin before, but ever since that time. . .

Rin sighed. She just wanted to let it go for now. “Well, so much for that. What did you want to talk to me about?”

Yugo stilled. Then all of his energy from before bounced back. “Rin, Akaba Reiji said that Yuri and I can finally separate!”

Rin smiled. “Yeah, that’s what I figured.”

“Aw, I wanted to surprise you,” Yugo complained. 

She giggled. “I mean, that was the first thing that came to mind, and I couldn’t think of any other reason why you would be this excited.”

“I guess,” Yugo admitted. 

“I’m so glad that it’s finally happening.”

Still, it didn’t reduce how relieved she was. No matter how glad she was at first when the she had separated from the other three girls, she was concerned when Yugo and Yuri couldn’t. But even now, after hearing the news, it was still nagging at her mind. “Did Akaba Reiji figure out why you two didn’t separate in the first place?”

Yugo sheepishly rubbed his neck. “About that. Not really.”

“What do you mean?”

“Uh. The thing is,” Yugo started explaining, “if there was a reason why we didn’t separate yet, then if it wasn’t resolved yet, then there’s a chance that we can’t separate. At least, that’s what he said. But Yuri and I couldn’t think of any reason.”

Rin started to feel worried. “So you’re not sure if it’s actually going to work?”

Yugo continued, “He said that if there wasn’t a reason, then everything should work out. And if Yuri and I couldn’t think of a reason, then it probably doesn’t exist.”

“Maybe,” Rin said doubtfully. “Well,” she tried to brighten up, “that’s probably the case, so I’m not going to worry about it. What day are you planning?”

“Tomorrow!”

“Already?”

“Yeah, I’m so ready!” To prove his point, he pumped his fist into the air. 

Rin laughed. Despite her reservations, Yugo wasn’t discouraged at all. 

“After this,” Yugo proclaimed, “I’ll finally get to spend more time with you.”

Yugo grinned at her, and Rin smiled back gently. “Yeah, I’m not used to being without you so often.”

Yugo seemed excited. “And you know what we can finally do? We can finally rebuild the D-Wheel!” 

_ Our D-Wheel. _ She didn’t remember this, but while she was controlled by that parasite, she had apparently destroyed the D-Wheel. Thankfully, it was recovered and kept safely, but it wasn’t fixed yet. Before she knew it, she was on the verge of tears. “Yeah,” she answered, “but we’re going to have to wait until I finish my exams.”

Yugo seemed to deflate physically, which amused Rin. “Tests. Right.” Yugo pouted. “Rin, you were always so smart. There was no way I could’ve built the D-Wheel without you. I still can’t believe you managed to understand all of those books.”

“Yugo, like I keep saying: you’re also smart because you were the one who practically built the D-Wheel.”

As always, Yugo blushed when Rin gave him that compliment. Even as they grew older, that never grew old. He was still blushing when he asked her, “So, I was thinking that we could make a promise to, you know, repair it.”

He brought out his hand. “Do you wanna pinky-promise?” Rin asked.

He nodded silently. Rin smiled wide as they made a promise with each other.

Afterwards, since Rin needed to study, she decided to kick Yugo out. “Yugo, good luck tomorrow!” she called out from the door as he was leaving. 

“Thanks!” He waved back. 

“Wait, I almost forgot! Do you want me to be with you tomorrow?”

“Nah,” Yugo refused, “you still need to study, right? Besides, I’ve got it covered! See ya!”

As Rin waved him goodbye, she began to feel dread.  _ Skipping ahead in school wasn’t the best call, was it? _ She went back to her room and had a hard time concentrating on her textbook. She didn’t want her kicking out Yugo to be in vain, so she stretched her arms and tried harder. 

It was a long day for her, but she alway had Yugo at least at the back of her mind. 


	3. Chapter 3

Yuri was staring at the Heartland plaza. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” he muttered to himself.

_ You’re already quitting?! I mean, you’re already here! _

Yuri grimaced. Why did Yugo have to sound so loud in his head? Up until the very last day. At least that’s one thing that Yuri would finally be rid of tonight. 

Tonight. Right.

It had come as a shock to Yuri when a couple of nights ago, Akaba Reiji had told the two of them that they could finally be separated. Before Yuri knew it, it was already that day. Now they just had to wait for nighttime. 

_ Are you listening to me?! _

Yuri was shaken out of his thoughts. Remembering what Yugo’s question was, he felt generous enough to answer it. “Yes,” Yuri admitted, “but you ignore me all the time too. Also, unlike you, I actually don’t want to look like a madman in front of who knows how many people.”

_ Man, you changed. A lot. _

Yuri tilted his head in confusion. “What makes you think that?”

_ I mean, until we fused or whatever, it’s not like you looked sane. And when did you care about how people saw you? _

“Huh” was all he replied. It was true that his goals back then had been much different than his current goals. At least, he had completely lost the will to fulfill his previous goals. He still didn’t know exactly how that happened. In any case, that must have changed him.

_ Anyways, when are you going to actually go up to him? _

Yuri flinched. He felt something unfamiliar as he looked back to the plaza. He cursed under his breath when he saw the children leaving from their instructor. What was this feeling? Anxiety? Dread? 

_ Hey, you’re the one who asked him to meet with you! What, are you scared or something? _

So he was  _ scared _ ? He felt ashamed of himself, and it didn’t help that he didn’t know why he felt like this suddenly. He just needed to ask him a question! That was all. Right?

Unfortunately, since the universe didn’t care about his nerves whatsoever, Dennis noticed him. And then proceeded to wave his arms around excitedly, trying to beckon him to move towards him. Yuri stood in place and wondered why Dennis always had to be so aware of his surroundings. 

_ Hey, you idiot! Move! _

Yuri ended up not having to take another step forward because Dennis ran towards him instead. “Yuri! It’s been a while!”

Yuri simply stared back at him. He replied, “I don’t know why you’re so happy to see me. And yeah, it’s been months since we last saw each other.”

Dennis seemed to deflate a little. “ _ Wow _ . Blunt as ever I see.”

_ Hold on. Wasn’t that was a bit too harsh? _

Yuri wondered when Yugo decided to act like his conscience. Still, he didn’t mean to hurt Dennis’s feelings. “I’m happy to see you too,” he added softly.

_ You should say sorry too. _

“Sorry.”

Dennis was taken aback by this. “Uh, no worries. It’s fine. I’m also sorry for not seeing you earlier.”

“It’s fine.”

For a while, they didn’t say anything to each other.

_ This is awkward. _

Even after all this time, Yuri wished that Yugo didn’t have to say every single obvious thing that came to his mind. However, Yugo couldn’t read Yuri’s thoughts at any given time, and vice versa. Back when they had been fused with Yuya and Yuto, while their feelings had sometimes blended together, the only thoughts they could ‘hear’ were the ones that they had wanted to be said. 

In other words, whenever Yuri wanted the other to shut up, he could only do so by saying it out loud, which became annoying very quickly.

Dennis broke the silence by saying, “Do you want to sit down at a cafe?”

Yuri broke out of his thoughts once again. His mind wandered off a lot more often lately. “Sure.”

For a while, they simply walked side-by-side on the streets of Heartland. Curious about the state of Heartland, Yuri looked around the city and noticed the amount of construction and what had already been rebuilt. Noticing this, Dennis went on to explain that the rebuilding of Heartland was moving along more quickly than most people expected. A part of it was due to the amount of funds the city received from Leo Corporation. While the company had nothing to do with the invasion of Heartland, Akaba Leo had still been its president while it took place. Therefore, Reiji had decided to have Leo Corporation help sponsor the city’s rebuilding.

By the time Dennis finished explaining, they arrived at the cafe. After they placed their orders, Dennis asked Yuri how he’d been. Yuri shrugged. “Alright, I guess. You?”

“Good!”

“Yeah, you seem happy.”

When Yuri had watched Dennis in the plaza, Dennis had seemed brighter than Yuri had remembered. Which was quite something to say the least.

They didn’t say anything else until their orders arrived. When they did, Dennis asked, “So you wanted to ask about some things?”

Yuri nodded. “Yeah. I wondered if I could help out in Heartland after I separate from Yugo.”

Dennis actually seemed surprised by this. “Are you sure you want to?”

Yuri nodded. “Yeah. I’m not sure what else I could do anyways. Is there a problem with that?”

“No, not that all,” Dennis answered quickly. “It’s just that you don’t have to. Even though a helping hand is always nice, there are already enough workers.”

Yuri shook his head. “I wasn’t technically part of the invasion, but I still worked for Academia. I’m at fault too.”

“Yuri, all of us were at fault, but it was more that we helped them rebuild because it needed to be rebuilded and not so much that we needed to atone for our sins.”

Yuri stared blankly at him. “But I thought that was the whole point?”

“Hmm, maybe that’s not quite right,” Dennis admitted, “but I think my point was that if you want to make up for what you’ve done, there are other ways to do it. It doesn’t have to involve rebuilding Heartland.”

_ Atoning for your sins, huh? _

After Yuri ran over what Dennis said in his mind, he said, “Like I said before, I can’t think of any other way to help. So could you talk to the people in charge of the rebuilding to let me join?”

“Of course.”

Then out of nowhere, Dennis smiled gently. “Yuri, you’ve changed.”

Yuri huffed. “You’re the second person today who told me that.”

_ See, I told you. _

Yuri still didn’t exactly know how he changed, but he didn’t doubt it now. “I wonder how that happened,” he mused to himself.

“You don’t know?”

“Hmm.”

As he pondered on it, he realized that it had probably started when. . .

“Back when we all fused. I lost my will to keep pursuing my goal.”

Dennis cocked his head. “Your goal? Wait, was that-?”

“Yeah,” Yuri confirmed. “ _ That _ .”

_ Wait, what goal? _

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Yuri said softly. 

“All right, then. We won’t talk about it,” Dennis mentioned offhandedly.

Just as Yuri was about to say that he wasn’t talking to him, he caught Dennis’s eye and realized that Dennis did know that.

After they finished making small talk, Dennis finally said, “Okay then, I’ll let you know when you can join. I’m pretty sure that you won’t have to wait long. Good luck for tonight!”

However, just when Dennis was starting to stand up and leave, Yuri realized that he still had another question, but he doubted that Dennis could help with this one.

Dennis seemed to notice Yuri’s hesitation. “Did you need to ask me anything else?”

Should he? 

_ Why are you hesitating?  _

Yuri wanted to tell Yugo that he probably wouldn’t have hesitated if Yugo weren’t there with him. 

Well, why not.

After taking a slow and deep breath, Yuri slowly asked, “May I ask another question? It’s fine if you can’t answer it.”

_ You know, you’re scary when you’re this polite. _

Almost confirming that, Dennis became apprehensive. “Yeah, ask away.”

Did he really want to ask it? Again, he didn’t want to ask while Yugo was right in his mind, but. . .

“If I want something, how do I stop myself from wanting it?”

For a while, all Yuri received was silence. “Yuri,” Dennis broke the momentary silence, “is something wrong? Does it have anything to do with tonight?”

Yuri flinched. 

_ What? _

Yuri cursed at himself. He shouldn’t have reacted like that. 

“Are you worried about it?” Dennis continued. 

Yuri didn’t know how to answer that.

_ Wait, you’re worried about that? But you seemed confident about it earlier. _

Yuri didn’t react.

_ And what does it have to do with wanting something?  _

Suddenly, Yuri snapped, “You know what? Just forget I said anything. We’ll separate just fine! I’m just a little nervous.”

Of course, Dennis didn’t believe him, as he ought to. But Yuri made a mistake in showing that moment of weakness. Weak. Yuri became weak.  _ That _ was how he changed. “About your question-” Dennis attempted to say.

“No! Don’t answer it. It doesn’t matter anyway.”

_ Sheesh, what’s up with you?!  _

Eventually, realizing that there wasn’t much more to say, Dennis said that he hoped that the separation tonight would be successful. Then after a few parting words, Yuri left Heartland and returned back to the Sakaki household. 

Yuri wanted to give up. He ruined his meeting with Dennis. He needed time away from everyone. And that especially included Yugo, who wouldn’t shut the hell up about what the whole deal was.

_ Fine! If you won’t tell me, then that’s  _ your  _ problem!  _

In just a few hours, if all goes well, Yuri and Yugo would be separated.

If all goes well.

Except that Yuri had been lying when he said that he didn’t think there was any reason why he and Yugo were still separated. And if that explanation were true, he would take it with him to the grave.


	4. Chapter 4

Yuri looked at the city. It was a magnificent view from where he stood.

_Wow. It reminds me of the City._

As himself, at least, Yuri had only visited the City once during the night. Due to his assigned mission, he honestly had not paid much attention to the view at that time, but in hindsight, the City had been beautiful. Yuri agreed, “Yeah, it does.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw a vision of Yugo standing beside him.

_You know,_ Yugo said, _me and Rin used to look at the city a lot. We would talk a lot about the Friendship Cup and how we would finally duel against Jack Atlas._

Yuri glanced at Yugo.

_A lot of things happened, but the Friendship Cup is next year, and we can finally go together. That’s why I was thinking I could build our D-Wheel with Rin again._

Yuri turned away from Yugo and instead inspected the room he was in. Even though the lights were off, the entire wall facing the city was made out of glass, so the city lights were enough to somewhat light up the room. CEO or not, he didn’t understand why Akaba Reiji needed such a large room only for him to have a desk in it. Did he need the space to pace around or ride a bicycle in it or something? At least Yuya thought so.

_I just realized. If I face against Rin, then who gets the D-Wheel?_

Despite himself, Yuri smirked. “Break the D-Wheel in half. Then let Rin choose the half she prefers.”

Yuri giggled to himself as he heard Yugo groan.

_I don’t know why I still talk to you!_

“I do hope that what you’re laughing at is Yugo,” a voice rang out.

_I didn’t hear him come in!_

Yuri didn’t either. Since when did he stop being vigilant? When it didn’t look like Yuri was going to answer, Reiji went on, “Thank you for meeting me here. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. If not, we can proceed to lab.”

_Uh, I think we’re set._

Yuri replied, “Yes, we can go.”

Reiji nodded in response, and then they headed towards the lab.

_As ready as we’ll ever be,_ Yuri added in his mind.

* * *

 

_I knew it._

“What just happened?”

_I knew this would happen._

“What?”

_This is all my fault._

“What do you mean it’s all your fault?”

_Don’t bother looking for me._

“Wait! What are you- Hey, wait! Stop! Come back!”

“Yugo!”

Yugo jolted back into reality. The first thing he noticed was a person standing in front of him. Akaba Reiji? Still feeling panicked, he asked where Yuri was.

“The separation was not successful. Since you took over his place, he should be in your mind.”

“But I can’t find him! He told me to not look for him. So where is he?”

Reiji’s eyes widened slightly. “You can’t find him? What exactly do you mean by that?”

Yugo sank down to his knees and yelled, “I don’t know!”

“Yugo, please calm down. I know you’re worried, but this will not bring Yuri back,” Reiji tried to say in a calming voice. It mostly worked because Yugo started to calm himself down, taking deeper breaths. The lab room felt cold now, for some reason. “Once you’re ready, tell me exactly what you mean when you said that you couldn’t find him.”

Just to make sure, Yugo closed his eyes and tried to search for Yuri. It didn’t work. “Most of the time, I don’t even notice he’s there. But if I want to, I can feel that he’s inside of me. But I can’t sense him now! It’s like he disappeared!”

“Did you notice anything happening to him while you two tried to separate?”

_Think! Try to remember_ , Yugo thought to himself. “I was trying to talk to him. He said things like it’s his fault, or whatever he said. He told me to not look for him. Now I don’t know where he went.”

While Yugo waited for Reiji to tell him what he thought might have happened, Yugo thought back to what had happened earlier in the day. Yuri had really acted strange. _Why didn’t he say anything about what worried him? He just went up and left. I can’t believe him. . ._

“I may have an idea on what happened.”

From where he sat, he glanced up at Reiji expectantly. “As to where he is: he’s more than likely still in your mind, but he managed to lock away his existence in there. I’m not sure why he feels responsible for why you two cannot separate, so do you have any idea why he feels that way?”

Yugo’s head fell. “No. He just acted really weird today. But he seemed fine by the time we arrived here.”

Reiji frowned. “What happened?”

“Uh.” Yugo scratched his head. Yuri had asked a weird enough question that Yugo actually remembered it. “‘How do I make myself stop wanting something?’ or something like that. He asked Dennis that, but that sounded weird, then that worried Dennis, and then Yuri freaked out and got angry. He just wanted to ask Dennis if he could help out in Heartland after we separate.”

Reiji adjusted his glasses. “As I suspected. He at least subconsciously wanted to remain as one with you.”

Yugo nodded to himself. “Oh, I see. Wait, _what_?! That doesn’t make sense! I thought he wanted to separate as much as I did. He’s always annoyed at me!”

“There’s no other reason I could think of that could prevent the separation. I can say confidently that for whatever underlying reason he may have, he didn’t want to separate from you.”

Yugo’s mind felt overloaded. This went against everything he had believed about Yuri. If anything, he believed that Yuri wanted to get away from him as quickly as possible. What was going on?

“You should head home now,” Reiji said not ungently. “Give it some time; Yuri can’t stay alone in there forever.”

Yugo stood up and then rubbed his eyes with his arm. That bastard made him tear up, damn it! Instead of waiting for him to come out of there, he just wanted to pound down whatever door Yuri locked himself behind.

Reiji bid him farewell, and Yugo left the Leo Corporation building. Yugo didn’t want to call Rin until he arrived home to the Sakaki residence. He was too preoccupied with running over in mind what Reiji had said.

As soon as Yugo entered his room, he collapsed onto his bed. He was so exhausted. . .

His duel disk beeped. Rin probably texted him. Yugo wearily grabbed it and looked at it.

_“Did it work?”_

Yugo called her.

“Yugo?”

“Rin. . .”

“Oh, no. I’m so sorry.”

Yugo felt like crying again, but he was too tired. “I can’t reach Yuri. He’s stuck in my mind, but I can’t find him.”

“What?”

Yugo repeated to her what Reiji had said. “So,” Rin confirmed, “Yuri didn’t actually want to separate? Now he feels guilty about it?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know why he didn’t want to separate. I don’t know anymore. . .”

“Yugo.” Rin’s voice was soothing. “You sound exhausted. I agree with what Reiji said. Just give it some time, or at least until you get an idea on what to do. For now, just sleep. It’s past midnight.”

As Rin continued to speak softly to him like a lullaby, Yugo eyelids felt heavy, and he eventually went to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

After school, Rin visited the Sakaki residence. As soon as she rang the doorbell, the door opened to reveal a red-eyed Yugo. He looked even worse than she expected. “Yugo, you look terrible.”

“Riiiiinn.”

She wrapped her arms around him and held him close. “Yugo. . .”

They stayed like that for a while until she decided that it was probably better to talk somewhere else. “Yugo, let’s go to your room.”

He nodded, and Rin held his hand as they went upstairs and entered his room. They both sat down on his bed. Yugo leaned into her side and rested his head on her shoulder. He seemed so tired. Not only was he worried, but everyone kept bothering him and asked him what had happened, which really took a toll on him. “You’re really worried, aren’t you,” Rin whispered. 

“How could that idiot do that?” he said softly. “He’s so going to get it when he comes back.”

“Didn’t you say last night what Akaba Reiji thought?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain much.”

“He said Yuri didn’t want to separate from you and that’s what caused the separation to fail,” Rin repeated to herself. “I agree with that. I always did wonder why it never worked for you two.”

Yugo sighed. “I always thought that it was just a technical thing or a glitch with the En cards. I didn’t even know that Yuri felt this way. I just wish I knew what the reason was.”

“I can think of a few things.”

“Wait, you can? What are they?”

“Hmm, the first thing I thought of was that Yuri doesn’t want to face the consequences of what he did.”

In which one of the things he did was kidnapping her, but that was besides the point. 

Yugo paused to think about it and then shook his head. “I don’t think I told you this, but he went to visit Dennis in Heartland to find out if he could help out there.”

That would explain why Dennis was particularly worried about Yuri and kept bothering Yugo. “Oh, really? So at the very least, that’s probably not the main cause, then.”

“What else did you think of?”

“This one is a bit more straightforward: maybe he didn’t want to leave you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, I meant that he feels close to you and doesn’t want you to spend less time with him.”

Yugo considered it for a second before saying, “Nah. He’s always annoyed at me, and now he’s gone.”

“If you say so. Besides, I can think of another reason.”

“What is it?”

Instead of answering, she instead said, “I just want you to know that I’ll support whatever decision you make.”

“Uh, Rin, honestly that sounds worrying.”

Yugo’s expression was way too funny. Rin giggled. “What makes you think that?”

“I don’t know. It sounds like a worst-case scenario thing. What reason are you thinking about, anyways?”

“If that’s the reason, then that should be up to him to say.”

“Aww, tell meee!” Yugo whined. 

A grin was still plastered on her face. “Nope.”

“Whyyyy?”

“I just said why.”

Yugo groaned, but his mood definitely lightened up ever since he started talking with her. When he realized that Rin really wasn’t going to give in, he gave up. “When do you think he’s going to come back?”

“I don’t know. But he’s going to have to come back eventually. There’s no way he can stay like this forever. I just wish there was a way for you to kick him out of your mind.”

Yugo groaned. “Yeah. It sounds so stupid, but I can’t.”

“I wonder if there’s a way you can visit him.”

“How can I visit him? I already tried calling for him again and again, but that didn’t work.”

“I’m not sure, but I’m just giving you another option to think about.”

“Okay, I’ll think about it.”

There wasn’t anything much left to discuss, so Rin decided to just keep him company until evening. All they did was talk about other things and duel each other without their duel disks, just like they had done as children. Still, Rin knew that Yugo appreciated it. 

When it seemed like Yugo was about to topple over at any moment, Rin told him to go to sleep. Any other day, she would have told him to clean up before going to bed, but she’d make an exception this time. It wasn’t even 9 o’clock yet, but as soon as Yugo crashed into his bed, he actually started snoring, which he only did if he were truly exhausted.

“Goodnight, Yugo,” Rin whispered. 

When she left his room, she made sure to close the door as quietly as possible. Hopefully, he would sleep well tonight. 

* * *

Yugo opened his eyes. Above him was the night sky. The stars twinkled, and the full moon shone overhead. 

The full moon. . .

The method to separate both Rin from her counterparts and Yuya from his counterparts had the highest chance of succeeding if it took place on the night of the full moon. When the En cards were first used to separate the girls, they needed all the extra energy they could get, and the moonlight helped power up the En Moon card. Obviously, the night Yugo and Yuri had tried to separate had had a full moon, but that time, Reiji had not told them to go outside. Maybe he had already suspected that their previous attempt to separate failed for other reasons. 

It’s been a day since Yuri had left, so why was there a full moon now? And why was he in a forest?

Yugo jolted and sat up. As far as he knew, a forest like this wasn’t anywhere near Maiami City. He stood up and looked around. This wasn’t good. It was too dark for him to see far enough into the distance. He took a deep breath and then breathed out. For some reason, he wasn’t scared but rather confused. He didn’t feel like this was a dream because everything felt too real, but then why was there a full moon gleaming overhead? 

If this was a dream, though, then he could try something. He braced himself, stook his arm out, and then shouted, “Time for me to fly!”

Against all reason, he started floating. He grinned widely as excitement coursed through him. “Cool! Is this the ‘lucid dream’ that Rin talked about once?”

He willed himself to fly forward and laughed as he felt the wind on his face. It felt similar to riding a D-Wheel for the first time.

And then crashed into a tree trunk.

As he lay on the ground, he wondered why he had to feel pain in a dream. His head hurt, damn it!

Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out. “Do you know how painful it is to watch you? I can’t believe you.”

Shocked to the point of forgetting about his pain, Yugo quickly sat up. Was that who he thought it was? “If you wanted to fly, why didn’t you have the common sense to fly  _ above _ the forest?”

That was weird. Whenever Yuri said something like that, it would sound demeaning, but he seemed more concerned. “Yuri, where are you?” Yugo called out while looking around him.

“Right here.”

Yuri seemed to appear out of nowhere. Unable to help himself, Yugo stood up and leapt towards him. “Yuriiiiii!”

Yuri stood still but let Yugo hug him. “Is this really you?” Yugo asked.

“Yeah,” he replied softly. 

Yugo started sniffing. “Did you know how worried I was? Why did you do that? Why did you run away?”

When Yuri wouldn’t answer, Yugo leaned back to look at him. Yuri seemed hesitant for some reason. That wasn’t something one saw every day.

After Yugo stared at him for too long, Yuri finally answered, “I don’t feel like talking about it.”

Yugo’s eyes grew colder. “I think I need to know. We can’t stay like this forever.”

Yuri grimaced and broke away from him. “I don’t even know how you entered this place. Can’t you tell that I want to be alone? You should go.”

All of his worrying must have gotten to him, for Yugo felt like that was the last straw. “I don’t even know what this place is! I don’t know how to leave. I keep calling for you, and calling for you, but you wouldn’t come back! I almost thought that you were gone forever!”

Unfazed by the outburst, Yuri simply explained, “This place is part of your mind. I created a place for myself so that you would  _ leave me alone _ .”

“I can’t leave you alone! You’re literally in my mind!”

Yuri sneered. “When are you going to get the point that you should leave,  _ Yugou _ ?”

That expression on Yuri’s face. Just like back then, when all Yuri had known was the joy of turning people into cards. Yuri calling him that pissed him off even more. He answered back, “And when are you going get it in your head that I should know why this all happened? ‘Cause if you don’t, we’re probably  _ never  _ going to get separated.”

Yuri’s sneer grew nastier, and then he started giggling. “This is how it’s going to end, isn’t it? Fine, I won’t tell you; I’ll  _ show _ you.”

“What, you bastard, I’ll- what?”

What did Yuri mean by showing him the reason?

Yuri stepped forward with a predatory look on his face until he stood face-to-face with him. He licked his lips.

And kissed him.

An electric shock zapped through him at the contact. When Yuri turned his head slightly to brush his lips against his, Yugo shivered and opened his mouth in surprise. Yuri took that chance to stick his tongue inside, and Yugo’s mind went blank. All he could understand at that moment was the feeling of butterflies in his stomach as a flame started to grow deep within him.

Yuri pulled away.

Yugo simply stared back in a daze. When it didn’t look like Yugo would break out of it soon, Yuri grew more and more irritated. “Well,  _ say something _ !”

Yugo broke from his trance. Did that just happen? He never did anything like that before, not even with Rin! “That-” Yugo stuttered, “That was m- my first kiss.”

Why did it look like Yuri expected a different answer? “And?” 

“What do you want me to say? I don’t know.”

Yugo scrambled to get his thoughts together. Right, so Yuri just kissed him. Yuri kissed him. Yuri kissed him. And, Yuri kissed him. Come on, how come he couldn’t think of anything else?

Yuri heaved a sigh. “I didn’t expect you to react like that.”

“Huh?”

Yuri’s head fell. “It doesn’t look like you hate me for that.”

Yugo was more confused than ever. “Why would I hate you? Yeah sure, sometimes you  _ really _ annoy me, like now, but I can’t hate you.”

Yuri grew perplexed. “But how? Don’t you love Rin?”

Yugo didn’t understand Yuri’s train of thought. “Yeah, of course. What does that have to do with anything?”

“I just kissed you.”

“So?”

Yuri muttered to himself, “I can’t believe this.” Then he thinly smiled at him. “How about this? Do you know how I feel whenever I see Rin?”

“What does Rin have to do with anything?”

“I hate her,” Yuri spat. Yugo flinched and reflexively took a step backwards. “I hate that you love her. I hate that she’s basically perfect for you. I hate that I never had a chance to be with you because of her. I hate that even if she never fucking existed, I still would never have a chance with you because of what I did in the past.”

Yugo stood frozen.  _ This is what Yuri was hiding? How come I never noticed? _

Yuri rambled on, “Even before we separated with Yuya, I didn’t want us to separate. I didn’t know at that time that I didn’t want to separate, but when it turned out that you and I failed to, I was relieved. So by the time Akaba Reiji asked us if there were any potential reasons why we failed to separate, I didn’t say anything. Of course I couldn’t say anything. What was the point anyways?”

Yugo could only continue to listen.

“When I found out that I was the reason why we’re still stuck together, I realized that it was because I was scared that you would leave me and spend all of your time with Rin instead. You looked so happy whenever you talked about spending more time with Rin. Trust me, I wanted to feel happy for you whenever you talked about rebuilding that D-Wheel. But I just couldn’t. And-” Yuri was on the verge of tears and could barely keep his voice stable enough to keep going. “And I tried so hard to stop feeling this way because this was preventing us from separating. But look how that turned out. I failed. You probably hate me now.”

Despite not yet completely understanding everything that Yuri had said, there was one thing that Yugo knew for sure. “Of course not! I already told you that I don’t hate you!”

Yuri broke down crying. 

_ He’s crying?! What am I supposed to do now?  _

“Uh,” Yugo moved in front of him but didn’t know what to do.

_ Come on, you idiot, do something! _

Before he thought about what he was going to do, he kissed him. Yuri made a surprised noise in his throat. It didn’t last as long as last time, though, because Yugo quickly broke the kiss when he realized what he just did. His face became flushed as he started to explain-

“Yugo.”

Yugo clamped his mouth shut. After Yuri wiped away his tears, he finally smiled at him. “I don’t know why you did that or if that was just a mistake, but thank you.”

_ Yuri’s smiling? That’s good, so I didn’t do something wrong? _

But Yuri’s face quickly fell. “What about Rin, though? She’s not going to be happy about this.”

“No, she won’t be mad,” Yugo tried to assure him.

“What makes you so sure?”

“Huh?”

He was sure for a reason, right? How did he feel so sure about this?

_ She said something like she’ll support whatever decision I make?  _ Yugo had thought over the statement she had said for a while because it had seemed to come out of the blue. Was this what she meant?  _ Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s what she meant! _

Yugo grinned broadly at Yuri. “Because she said so. Sorry, I just had to remember what she said.”

Yuri was shocked. “She said that? How could you forget something like that?”

Yugo rubbed the back of his head and laughed bashfully. Honestly, it had been vague at that time, but it was one of those times that Yugo knew that he didn’t have to tell Yuri that. 

Yuri muttered to himself, “She’s somebody. Even though I tried so hard to hide everything, she guessed it anyways.”

“Yuri, I want you to know something.”

“Hmm?”

“ _ Of course _ I’m not going to leave you alone! Rin has to study a lot anyways, but even if she didn’t, I would still spend time with you.”

“Yugo. . .”

To prove his point, Yugo wrapped his arms him. “So can we leave now? We can try separating again later, right?”

It seemed like an eternity, but Yuri finally held him back. “Yes,” he whispered.

A warm darkness enveloped them, and they both drifted off into unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, there'll likely be only one more chapter after this. This was always meant to be a shorter work.
> 
> Thank you to whoever left comments or kudos! I really appreciate it!


	6. Chapter 6

When Yugo woke up, he saw sunlight streaming through the window. He rubbed his eyes and then stretched his arms, but when his arm hit something, he heard a groan. Confused, he turned his body and faced the other side of the bed. 

What was Yuri doing in his bed?

As if in response to this question, the events of the previous night flooded into his mind. They were vague and unclear as if they were memories from a dream, and if it weren’t for Yuri lying right next to him, he would have assumed that he had just been simply dreaming. 

Luckily, it didn’t seem like it woke Yuri up. It was hard for him to believe that Yuri actually came back, but here he was sleeping peacefully.  
It was really strange seeing him like this. It might have been because his sneer was nonexistent or that his features were softened by sleep. If Yuri looked like this forever, Yugo was sure he could never take his eyes away from him. 

As Yugo continued to stare at him, something popped out at him. When he first met him, one of the things about Yuri that had irked Yugo the most was that he had had the same face as he did. But now he couldn’t for the life of him believe that. Sure, Yuri and Yugo, as well as Yuto and Yuya, all had similar faces, but as time went on after they separated, it became harder and harder for him to believe that they had all come from the same person. Was he the only one to think this way?

He looked away. If he stared at Yuri any longer, he felt like that was going to make him a creep. Maybe he should call Rin. He grabbed his duel disk and left his bedroom. After he yawned, he started to call her. 

“Hi, Yugo!”

“Hey. Just wanted to let you know that he’s back.”

He heard a gasp from the other side. “Really? That’s great!”

“Yeah,” he responded quietly.

Rin immediately picked up on his tone. “Is something wrong?”

“Huh?” Nothing he knew of, at least.

“I just thought you would be more excited.”

Yugo proceeded to give one of the biggest yawns of his life. It felt a ghost was being ripped from his body. 

Rin stopped herself from chuckling. “Oh, I see. Did you get enough sleep last night?”

He scratched his head. “I think so. I just feel like I need to catch up on a lot more sleep.”

“Sounds like it. Is he awake?”

“Nope. Should I just let him sleep or-” his stomach grumbled, “Uh?”

He heard Rin trying to stop her laughter but failing to prevent a snort from escaping. “How about you eat something? If Yoko-san is in the house, then you could ask her to make her something.”

As if she were conjured, Yugo saw her walking down the hallway. “Oh, Rin, gotta go. Talk to you later?”

* * *

 

About an hour later, Yugo returned to his room to find Yuri still sleeping. “You’re still sleeping?” he mumbled. 

Yuri stirred, opened his eyes, and then glanced at him. “No. I just didn’t want to get up.”

Yugo rubbed the back of his head. “Um. Okay? You’re that tired?”

Yuri proceeded to yawn dramatically, with his head facing upwards and hands gracefully cupping the front of his mouth. Like a diva. Yugo huffed.  _ What am I going to do with him? Seriously.  _

“Fetch me some food,” Yuri commanded.

Yugo’s eye twitched. “Really? After everything that happened? You’re ordering me around?”

Yuri eyed him expectantly. Yugo continued, “Really?”

A moment of silence. “Really?!”

“Are you going to continue to be a broken record?” Yuri drawled.

“Really?”

Yuri’s face contorted. Then he burst into laughter. 

“Really?” Yugo repeated helplessly.  _ What was going on with this guy? _

Yuri hugged his sides and laughed even harder. “Stop saying that! I- I can’t breathe.”

Yugo stared in wonder. Was the world ending? Even as Yuri regained his breath, Yugo just stood there in disbelief. Yuri noticed Yugo staring at him with his jaw open. “What?”

“I was thinking that the world was ending. That’s all.”

“Why?” Yuri tilted his head. He seemed genuinely confused.

“When was the last time you laughed like that?”

Yuri closed his eyes and tried to remember. The thing was, he had only ever laughed like that whenever he had the joy of turning his prey into a card. That wouldn’t do for an answer. He tried asking himself if this was actually the first time he had laughed like that without the expense of someone else’s misery. “Yuri,” Yugo whispered, “you don’t remember?”

Yuri simply shrugged in response. “I actually do remember, but I don’t feel like telling you. That’s all. And,” Yuri held up a finger to prevent Yugo, who started to become indignant, from interrupting him, “those times are gone.”

“Those times?” Yugo repeated. “Do you mean-?”

“Yes.”

Strangely enough, though, another memory happened to surface at that moment. For once, it was a memory pleasant enough that Yuri wondered why he hadn’t cherished it more before the attempt-to-separate mess happened. “Actually, I might take that back. It happened recently enough, I guess.”

Yugo looked at Yuri earnestly. “Tell me!”

“Hmm. Should I?”

“Oh, come on!” Yugo whined. “You didn’t answer my last question!”

After he giggled at Yugo’s reaction (it was rather fitting since it had to do with his answer), he gave his answer:

“When I first met you that night.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And... That's the end!!! (of this rather short fic. Sorry for not updating for several months. I tried to think of a better way to end this fic but uh yeah
> 
> Regardless, thank u for reading!


End file.
